Overcoming challenges to the conservation of Pink-footed Shearwaters: A transdisciplinary approach

Abstract

**Abstract:** The conservation of highly migratory species presents unique challenges due to their complex life histories and the vast spatial scales involved in their annual life cycle. To address such challenges meaningfully, transdisciplinary approaches may be particularly effective. The Pink-footed Shearwater (Ardenna creatopus) is an endemic Chilean breeder but is a trans-hemispheric migrant during the non-breeding season. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN and Endangered by Chile and Canada. Both colony-based and at-sea threats exist for this species, including impacts of invasive mammals, breeding habitat degradation, a chick harvest on one of the breeding islands, and competition with and bycatch in multiple fisheries. In this presentation, we provide an overview of the collaborative approaches we have taken over 18 years and the need for further transdisciplinary involvement to address conservation threats to this species. We have worked intentionally at the local community level with schools, artist cooperatives, cattlemen's associations, artisanal fishing cooperatives, and other community groups as well as with non-governmental organizations and Chilean federal agencies. Important outcomes include the first mammal-excluding conservation fence of its kind in Chile, national conservation plans in Chile and Canada, collaborations with Chilean fisheries agencies, NGOs and fishing communities, new education programs in local schools, and community-based collaborations with artists. Significant challenges remain that require diverse expertise and perspectives, including improving estimates of bycatch in fisheries of multiple nations, increasing local stewardship by improving the lives of people living on the breeding islands, incorporating social scientific approaches to build community support for invasive-species eradication programs, solving methodological difficulties in quantifying population trends in their forested breeding habitat, and understanding the species' vulnerability to prey dynamics driven by climate change and fisheries extraction. **Authors:** Peter Hodum¹, Veronica Lopez², Ryan Carle², Pablo Manriquez², Tiare Varela², Paola Gonzalez², Hector Gutierrez², Valentina Colodro², Michelle Hester² ¹University of Puget Sound / Oikonos, ²Oikonos